Radio War Nerd EP #110 — Disinformation Warfare

sounds like this "Let Poland Be Poland" thing is basically the Star Wars Holiday Special of the US propaganda establishment

Good stuff. A few anecdotal thoughts as I listened: I worked in HIV prevention for quite a few years and I can tell you that a belief that somehow deep state/dark forces (American) are connected to the emergence of HIV are extremely widespread in several American sub-communities and for good reason because they know some history like Tuskegee. In order to fulfill our prevention mission we had to just let it all go and treat the issue with militant agnosticism or face rejection of all information we wanted to convey. And to this very day, even many educated privileged white people I know personally who are HIV positive themselves also believe this. In Seattle, in 2017. Nobody blames Russia tho' lol. My dad spent his career in military intelligence in Europe during the era you discussed, where I grew up. He had open contempt for the CIA, respect and fear of the NSA, and deep cynicism about the competence of the American intelligence services, much as you described. A John Bircher type wacko conservative/fascist in his youth (from his dad), he still had the highest regard for communism as a motivating belief system far more powerful and attractive than whatever America offered lol, it was why it was so dangerous, like a drug. Very much like those religious conservatives now who fear homosexuality because they believe it is just so much better for men sexually than straight sex lol, and will 'turn' everyone if not prevented from spreading. (Which my dad also believes.) I remember that the day I was 'allowed' to read Whittaker Chambers as a teenager was treated as an almost sacred coming of age, intended as an inoculation. Sadly for him it didn't work lol, probably planted the seed of my long bumpy ride towards the left and everything opposite of what I hated about my dad and his world view. He knows some of figures in the news these days, I often wonder what he makes of this whole Russia hysteria now but honestly I despise and distrust him too much to ask.

Thinking of it, an audiobook of the Iliad would be fine too. Narrated by Ken Nordine or similar, of course.

I thought the horror of the Tuskegee experiment was that men infected with syphilis weren't told they had it and weren't treated with known effective antibiotics--not that they were deliberately injected with syphilis, as Mark stated. Does anyone have a link to support the claim that deliberate infection occurred?

Re-uploaded the RSS feed for this episode, check again. Should be complete.

Mentioned on twitter but final 90 seconds or so is cut off on the Apple podcast feed version. Also you should totally make the discussion an open preview.

The reason this sexual harassment purge has proceeded so far even “without a head “ as Mark put it, is because the liberal establishment opened up a vulnerable flank by weaponizing identity politics against the Bernie Sanders insurgency. They claimed to have more legitimacy by being more sensitive on issues of gender and race. So now that these issues are being brought up, not only can they not try to dismiss them, but they have to pretend at least to embrace them.

I would love to hear any updates about the New York event mentioned at the end (Dec. 3 I believe).

I would certainly be willing to pay for an audiobook of Pleasant Hell, especially if I could pay you directly and not go through some shifty middleman like Amazon.

Is there any way Mark could compile a sort of "favorite book"-list? Alexander Cockburn did a great one for a book that was later published on Counterpunch.

I'm definitely also on-board wit hthe cals for a re-release of pleasant hell!

Episode cuts off at the end mid sentence. Loved it otherwise; the story of Vick and Korean Flight 007 were absolutely eye opening.

Angelton is conflated w/ Colby as far as murky deaths in the mid-90’s.

Man, have I been waiting for just this episode!

I've been looking for a copy of Pleasant Hell for since before Radio War Nerd!

I would love a Pleasant Hell audiobook.

I love Mark’s brutal honesty (in the first 20 minutes) about the massive levels of spite and schadenfreude spiraling through American society right now. He cuts through a million bullshit takes and opens up some real questions

Would definitely like to see Pleasant Hell re-released. On Amazon you can't get it for under $100.